DISNEY DIARIES- ANIMAL KINGDOM

My Disney trip a couple of months back was jam packed with activities, and in case you’ve missed it, I’ve already blogged about my stay, and The Magic Kingdom and still have a lot more Disney coming your way!

I’ve been asked out of all four parks I visited, which was my favorite. To me, that’s a question that’s just impossible to answer, simply because they can’t be compared. The Magic Kingdom brings out the princess lover within you, Epcot takes you on an authentic world tour, The Animal Kingdom offers you an African safari in the midst of Orlando, and Hollywood Studios is another way to revive the Toy Story lover within you. For now, however, here are my two cents on the Animal Kingdom experience.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom is the biggest park out of all four I’ve visited, and your legs will for sure feel it by the end of the day. The park is an overload of pleasant greenery, so your steps are definitely not going to waste. One thing that’s worth noting and stopping for has got to be the Tree of Life, the park’s signature spot, protruding in the center and beautifully covered by animal sculptures all around. As soon as you walk through the gates of Animal Kingdom, my number one tip would be, find your way to Kilimanjaro Safaris, and make it your destination! This is hands down the most popular attraction at the park, which also means it is the most crowded.

One thing is for certain though, no matter how long your wait time is, you are in for a little more than twenty minutes of animal hunting fun. The attraction is themed to mimic an African safari, meaning the tour guide would be sharing fun animal facts, cracking a few jokes, and pointing out where to look out for elephants, cheetahs, and lions. This was definitely a great start to a wonderful day, so would recommend to start off with it.

Once you’re finished with the safari, the Expedition Everest is a must if you are a fellow lover of fast rides. Lastly, Dinosaur is worth checking out for a scary pre-historic tour. Keep in mind, there are tons of meet & greet opportunities in the park; Pocahontas, Rafiki, Baloo, and Tarazan are all over the park waiting to meet and chat with their fans. We bumped into Donald Duck and he was a blast to chat and take photos with, the whole thing turned into a fun photo shoot as he joked and flirted with all the ladies.

The Animal Kingdom got a few tricks up its sleeve, some which happened right after my trip unfortunately, none the less, they’re exciting news for future visits!

The park, for the first time ever, is open well into night time now, meaning the fun no longer ends when the sun sets (yes, that was a cheeky rhyme).

Kilimanjaro Safaris is also open during the night time now, making it a completely different experience than during the day, the Tree of Life will awaken each night with a lively celebration filled with music, dance, and visuals, and Rivers of Light, a nighttime extravaganza with performers and special effects is launching soon as well. To me this only means one thing, another visit is due!

To end our Animal Kingdom adventure, we stopped for a quick lunch break at Yak & Yeti, a beautiful Nepalese style restaurant which serves a variety of Asian food. It’s a good spot to have lunch after a long day of adventures, as the portions were pleasantly generous. The server was really helpful, guiding us through the best options and the ‘must-tries’ from the menu, and even helping me with understanding the halal dining options available. Again, this was a recurring theme as we dined throughout the Disney parks, which got me kinda used to not having a waiter frown for a change.

My next Disney post is going to be about our Disney Cruise experience, so stay tuned!